New York and Las Vegas are two of the most rarefied helicopter markets in the country. While the winds of fortune can be lucrative for operators and service providers in both places, the environments also feature cut-throat competition, congested airspace, an aggressive amount of multi-level government oversight and regulation and robust anti-noise litigation from an affluent citizenry and their environmentalist allies.
The Trenk family operates in both locations. Since 1980 it has run New York’s West 30th Street Heliport under its Air Pegasus umbrella. West 30th is New York’s only 24/7 commercial heliport. It is a busy place, with an average of 120 operations and a peak of 250 operations daily. Half of these are air-tour flights operated by Liberty Helicopters. Seventy-five percent of Air Pegasus’ revenues come from landing and parking fees while the remainder is derived from fuel sales, according to Al Trenk, Air Pegasus’s CEO. Landing fees range anywhere from $75 to $175 depending on the size of the helicopter.
